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Hmm... I liked The Martian a lot, but hated The Europa Report. They don't really seem comparable: The Europa Report has silly martians and little hard science... it's more like "Blair Witch Project in Space" IMHO.

I was expecting hard science but got a monster movie instead.

Alternatively - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Mysterious_Island by Jules Verne

Stranded fellas go from absolute zero to civilized dwelling using nothing but natural island resources and some good old chemical and mechanical engineering. Includes complete walk-throughs for making the gunpowder and nitroglycerin from scratch :)

Absolutely! The Mysterious Island is gold. I loved it when I was a kid. Excellent read.

You can get it for free here: http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/8993

Or a scanned copy with illustrations (also DRM free but you'll need to set up a google play account if you don't have one already) here: https://play.google.com/store/books/details/Jules_Verne_The_...

Both were awesome hard sci fi. Not to mention that a trip to Mars and Europa are feasiboe with current technology. Interstellar, not so much.